Earlier this year, Glashütte Original introduced its new Senator Excellence watch and Caliber 36 movement. HODINKEE’s European Editor, Arthur Touchot, wore the watch for the first 100 hours of Baselworld and reported on its increased autonomy, silicon hairspring, and innovative movement fastening system. There is one other new feature that Arthur didn’t get a chance to take a look at – Glashütte Original is including a quality promise for the Caliber 36, with standards exceeding COSC chronometer certification.

Earlier this year, Glashütte Original introduced its new Senator Excellence watch and Caliber 36 movement. HODINKEE’s European Editor, Arthur Touchot, wore the watch for the first 100 hours of Baselworld and reported on its increased autonomy, silicon hairspring, and innovative movement fastening system. There is one other new feature that Arthur didn’t get a chance to take a look at – Glashütte Original is including a quality promise for the Caliber 36, with standards exceeding COSC chronometer certification.

The new Caliber 36 movement from Glashütte Original is tested beyond COSC standards.

"Chronometer" historically, referred to a particularly accurate watch or clock – often, one which used a detent escapement. Today, the term "chronometer" is defined by ISO 3159, which forms the basis of the standards used by Switzerland’s Controle Officiel Suisse des Chronomètres (COSC). COSC certifies chronometers for Rolex, Breitling, and Panerai to name just a few brands. While COSC is certainly a prominent testing agency, there are others too. The Federal Institute of Metrology (METAS) in Switzerland has recently begun testing watches, with Omega moving its chronometer testing there from COSC. In Germany, Wempe tests and certifies chronometers at the Glashütte Observatory, under DIN 8319, which uses the same criteria as those found in ISO 3159.

Setting aside accuracy, the Senator Excellence is a flat-out attractive watch that wears very well.

Even with the existing testing agencies available to certify their watches, there is a trend of brands making their own seals, promises, or guarantees instead. Some argue that these results cannot be relied on as much as those coming from neutral testing agency – and I agree. Possibly with that in mind, Glashütte Original chose to make its quality promise standards exceed what COSC specifies. Additionally, the Senator Excellence is not marketed as a chronometer, even though it certainly could be based on its performance standards (though again, to use the term "chronometer" for a German-made watch would require testing by an external agency). Looking at Glashütte Original’s quality promise, I can see that it notably exceeds COSC’s chronometer standards in two categories: positions tested and average daily rate.

The Senator Excellence is the first watch to house the new Caliber 36 movement.

This is an impressive testing regime for any watch, and I was interested to test the watch first hand to see what the results would be. While I did not test the rate over twelve days (as Glashütte Original did) the results I saw in one afternoon testing with Witschi and Vibrograf timing machines were remarkable. The results matched almost exactly what Glashütte Original specified in the rate card supplied with the watch. The Senator Excellence is an extraordinarily accurate mechanical watch, representing a significant upgrade to the brand’s popular Senator line.

The Glashütte Original Senator Excellence in stainless steel with silver dial is available now with a retail price of $9,700. For more information, visit Glashütte Original.